


Last Mission Protocol

by AnaGP



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Hurt James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Loneliness, M/M, Not Happy, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Rhodey Feels, Sad Jarvis, Suicide Mission Accomplished, Tony Angst, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Triggers, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-06 01:56:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11026188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnaGP/pseuds/AnaGP
Summary: When Tony woke up, he was strapped down to a bed and it took exactly 2.5 seconds for the realization of what had happened to hit him.'Now I greet you from the other side of sorrow and despair, with a love so vast, and so shattered, it will reach you everywhere.'-Leonard Cohen





	Last Mission Protocol

**Author's Note:**

> My lovelies,  
> I cannot stress this enough: THIS IS AN ANGST FIC WITH NO HOPEFUL/HAPPY ENDING SO PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE TREAD CAREFULLY. Triggers include: hurt, emotional loss, suicidal thoughts and actions. If these things are triggers for you, please don't read this fic. Stay safe, lovelies.  
> As you can see, I'm not in the best of places mentally at the moment, I had to get some of the pain out somehow.  
> Stay safe, darlings, stay safe.

Tony is _drowning_. He’s a genius and he’s supposed to be able to handle hard things, like fighting bad guys and surviving torture, which he _had_ managed pretty well when he had been young and full of vibrant energy. Now, though, _now_ he’s not as young as he used to be. Alright, so he’s not _old_ , he’s just tired. He’s been breaking his back fixing Natasha’s Widow Bites and optimizing Clint’s arrows, he has _absolutely_ no time for breaking down. His calendar is full up to the max and he has relied on 10-minute naps for the past three days because he can’t afford to _lose_ precious hours to the basic necessity that is sleep. He’s been living off blueberries and coffee and his AC/DC music is all that’s preventing him from falling asleep right there on his workbench.

“Sir, a new email from Miss Potts,” Jarvis says and Tony gestures for him to bring it up. He _knows_ he’s falling behind, he’s got 435 emails to be read, 32 marked as urgent. He’d just been in the middle of answering the R &D division in Japan when Jarvis pulled up Pep’s email. It was a single sentence that read, _Tony, if you’re still awake, go to bed. We’ll work everything out tomorrow._ Tony felt his eyes water at the words. “Sir?” Jarvis asked, but Tony shook his head and the AI erased the email. The engineer finished his email to R &D and stretched for a few seconds.

“Bring up the adapted schematics for the Quinjet’s engine,” he muttered and Jarvis did. Tony sat down and tried to make sense of the numbers, but he couldn’t. _Fuck._ He’s drowning, he can feel it, and there is nothing he can do to stop it; all he _can_ do is drown on his own terms. Minutes turn into hours, night to morning, and he’s still awake. It’s not like he _could_ sleep, even if he wanted to. He does not want to.

Tony goes to the old cabinet in the workshop, opens it and rummages until he finds the threadbare red t-shirt that still somehow smells of home. _Rhodey._ “Blackout mode, Jay,” the engineer said, and proceeded to use his maximum override code to prevent others from using theirs. He brought the shirt to his face and inhaled deeply. _Rhodey._ Slowly, he puts the shirt down and approaches the main server of the Tower, where Jarvis and all his other AI’s were born.

“Sir, the Avengers’ alarm has gone off,” Jarvis says, but Tony does not answer. He pulls a chair and plugs in a small laptop to the outdated port in the server. The laptop is instantly flooded with data and Tony feels a strange coldness settle on his stomach. He stands and goes to pat the bots, who are all in their charging stations. Rhodey had loved those bots, loved them like they were their children; and maybe they were, the bots were as close to children as Tony was ever going to get and Rhodey ( _beautiful, wonderful Rhodey)_ had understood. Then again, Rhodey had understood everything about Tony, he had seen the best of him and the worst of him, and chosen both. He’d simply chosen _him_.

And Tony had chosen Rhodey, without thinking, without doubting. Rhodey had been _it_ for Tony. When the War Machine suit went down, Tony’s life flashed before his eyes, almost as if it were Tony inside the suit. Steve had been closest to the site of the crash, he’d dug and pushed the debris off the suit because Iron Man- _Tony_ had been too shocked to move, and then he’d suddenly sprang into action, desperately trying to reach the suit and pull it out, pull _Rhodey_ out. He pried the hatches open with shaky fingers and let out a howl of anguish at the sight. Thor and Steve had to pull him away because Tony had turned feral, he was thrashing and screaming, blindly reaching for War Machine’s suit because it was all he could do. Rhodey had been rushed to the ER and Tony had been held down and injected with a strong sedative. When Tony woke up, he was strapped down to a bed and it took exactly 2.5 seconds for the realization of what had happened to hit him.

“Sir.” Jarvis’ voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Initiate the final phase of the ‘Last Mission’ protocol, Jay.”

A few moments of silence and then, “As you wish, sir.”

The Last Mission protocol was established three and a half years after Tony first met Rhodey. (Yes, it had taken Tony three years to come to the conclusion that he would be unable to function without Rhodey in his life.) It was simple, really. If at some point, Tony ever found himself unable to cope with life anymore, he would initiate the first phase. The first phase lasted 6 years, and it required Tony’s entire cooperation in every method established on the protocol to preserve his life. That meant that Tony would spend 6 years in therapy, taking antidepressants and any other medication prescribed to him by his doctors; basically, doing everything in his power to cope with life. If, after those 6 years, Tony was still unable to cope, he could decide to implement phase 2 of the protocol. Fun fact, the ‘Last Mission’ protocol had only two phases.

Another fun fact, after Rhodey’s fall, Tony had initiated the first phase.

The latest Iron-Man suit landed softly next to Tony, open and inviting. The engineer, however, focused his attention on the laptop and the codes there. Tony closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, took a deep breath, and began to type. He did not keep any copies of the code he typed, he had it memorized, all of it. Line after line of code flashed on the black screen, painlessly putting the three bots to sleep.

“Jay?” Tony asked.

“They did not experience any pain or fear, sir,” Jarvis answered. Tony let out a pained sob and nodded. “If I may, sir, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to accompany you all these years.”

“Thank _you_ , Jay.”

“We will meet again, Tony.” The significance of the AI referring to him by name was not lost on the engineer.

“Good-bye, Jarvis.”

Tony typed in the last bit of code and the AI was gone. There were no copies of any kind of his AI technology, and he had taken care to destroy any information about his suits. When he died, all those things would die with him. Tony stepped into the Iron Man armor and closed it around him manually; the suit felt empty without Jarvis.

Iron Man lands heavily next to Steve, just in time to block an attack from their current foe.

“Iron Man, I need eyes on 42nd Street!”

“Thor, on your left!”

“Widow, 58th Street, now!”

“Thanks for the catch, Shellhead!”

“HULK SMASH!”

“-can’t get to-”

“-near them, Iron Man!”

“Hawkeye, now!”

“Thor! Hulk!”

The red and gold suit plummeted to the ground. Tony muttered, “Rhodey.” And closed his eyes.


End file.
